The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to test modern healthcare in ways never seen before. Physicians and nurses worldwide are being called to service, risking their own well-being to help an alarming volume of ill and worried patients. How we manage this emergency depends largely upon the quality of tools available to help us improve safety for our patient and clinician communities.

These tools include technologies that can help slow the spread of this new, highly transmissible virus through social distancing, allowing us to work with patients to determine the most appropriate venue of care.

When it comes to ensuring patient safety, everyone has a role to play. Patient Safety Awareness Week presents a valuable opportunity for healthcare organizations to promote safety awareness in their communities, and to continue to think of ways in which they might make patient safety part of their workplace culture. 

To close out the week, I asked MEDITECH clinical staff to share personal experiences that inspired their commitment to ensuring patient safety, and the direction in which they see healthcare heading. As they show us, it’s real people with real stories who are driving change in healthcare. 

The World Health Organization estimates that 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in some 2.6 million deaths, with most adverse events being preventable. 

As physicians, we often don’t see the harm that opioid pain medications can cause to the individual, whether through side effects, dependence, or diversion. Also, we may not always consider the implications on the national scale; prescription drug overdose deaths have increased exponentially from 2013 to 2016. The magnitude of this crisis has led to pain management guidelines from numerous entities, such as the Joint Commission and the CDC. These recommendations provide a solid foundation for opioid stewardship and are now considered to be best practice.  

National Recovery Month  sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is observed every September to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with mental and substance use disorders to live healthy, rewarding lives.

Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of harm around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the cost associated with medication errors is around $42 billion USD annually. Likewise, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) has documented over $140 million Canadian dollars in direct and indirect healthcare expenditures due to preventable medication hospitalizations, with lost productivity (including time off work) adding an additional $12 million in costs.

In our latest Thought Leader podcast, I speak with Phil Campbell, CIO and VP of Information Services at CalvertHealth (Prince Frederick, MD), about how his organization has been addressing the opioid crisis through its award-winning Opioid Stewardship Program. 

Having a clear view of a patient’s prescription history is one of the most important tools a doctor can have during the opioid crisis. That’s why we recently integrated our EHR with the Michigan Automated Prescription System (MAPS) at Chippewa County War Memorial Hospital.

In 2014, there were 28 million patient discharges in U.S. hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates that in 2017, six million senior citizens were readmitted to hospitals, which cost an average of $15-20 million.

Quality care for our patients is at the heart of Med Center Health. Part of quality care is following the latest evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of various disease states, especially those with high risk of mortality.